From channelinsider.com:

Dealers in refurbished computer and networking gear are seeing business increase as solution providers and end users go bargain hunting for "slightly used" and "new to you" equipment.

Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”

In the middle of this difficult economy, the opportunities are less apparent for some solution providers. Others, however, see an opportunity in a dearth of new IT equipment purchase by corporations downsizing, closing offices and merging with other companies.

Solution providers who specialize in refurbished equipment are seeing signs of real growth in 2009, thanks to an abundance of nearly new IT equipment entering the product stream coupled with slashed IT budgets.

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From cbc.ca:

Office workers are like electricity: When they want to get something done, they follow the path of least resistance.

Which is why, say researchers at MIT, the Post-it note continues to flourish on every surface of the contemporary office, despite all those expensive computers ready and willing to help.

David Karger helps lead a group at MIT exploring the way people work with computers. A recent paper from his team chronicled the attraction of "information scraps" like Post-Its, which, says Karger, are actually near-perfect data base tools. They’re accessible and easy to use, and they take advantage of the brain’s facility to remember an object’s location in the three-dimensional world.

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From cbc.ca:

According to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, the number of reported laptop thefts increased almost 48 per cent over the last two years, from 73,700 to almost 109,000. The number of reported phone robberies jumped 33 per cent over the same period, from 60,100 to nearly 80,300. In the past three years, theft of Apple iPods and other digital music players surged 91 per cent from 8,900 to more than 17,000. The data include all reported incidents from pick-pocketing to commercial heists.

It’s so bad that a 2007 study showed iPod robberies bumped up overall crime rates in some major U.S. cities. According to a study by policy group the Urban Institute, felonies increased 18.3 per cent in New York subways in 2005 — but minus iPod thefts, the amount of subway crime would have actually decreased by 3 per cent for the year. The same study said that stolen iPods accounted for 4 per cent of all robberies in Washington, D.C., in 2007.

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From cbc.ca:

Credit card companies are in a precarious position in 2009 as some consumers start to batten down the hatches and reduce their spending, while other face potential bankruptcy.

That could mean some noticeable changes with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, from higher interest rates to a more aggressive chase against unpaid debts.

"There’s definitely going to be more tightening," said Michael Kon, an analyst at Morningstar in Chicago who has been watching the industry respond to a widening set of troubles south of the border.

He said mounting job losses and an increasingly dismal U.S. economy have left U.S. banks wary about handing out credit readily to consumers.

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From themenucoachchronicles.com:

I get this question all the time. Basically, I eat what I like to call the “Minimalist Meal Plan”. I despise the word diet, but I had to get your attention. Just look at the Google Trends graph for the word diet in blue vs. meal plan in red. Meal Plan is a continuous flat line. We are a “diet crazed” society.

So, the minimalist meal plan consists of these food items:

Raw fruit
Raw veggies
Beans
Filtered tap water
Whole grain breads and cereals – I love warm homemade bread
…

Minimalist means: Use of the barest essentials – For me that means no prepackaged convenience foods.

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From epicureancyclist.blogspot.com:

About a year ago, I went to buy some blades for my Mach 3 and saw the price tag and absolutely refused on principal as a sane and capable person to pay the kings ransom for the blades. There has to be a better way, I thought.

So that thinking led me down a strange journey into the world of “wet shaving.” It’s “wet”, because unlike that magic goo in a bottle that doesn’t really lubricate, “wet” shaving is based around using a brush, shaving soap and water. The advantages of wet shaving are many, for one you do get a CLOSER shave and it is much cheaper in the long run. For example, I recently ran out of a tub of $10 shaving cream (The Body Shop makes a great men’s shaving cream!) that lasted me nearly four months. It didn’t use an aerosol or require any strange space-age application device and the plastic tub is recyclable!

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